This invention relates generally to transfer mechanisms and particularly to a device for accurately positioning and orienting substantially rectangular envelopes, such as kinescopes, at a preselected position.
In an effort to improve quality and productivity while simultaneously decreasing costs, there is substantial activity directed toward automating the plants where kinescopes for color television receivers are manufactured. Frequently, the performance of the various manufacturing steps requires the kinescope envelopes to be accurately positioned at a preselected position and oriented in a desired orientation. The fulfillment of these positioning and orienting requirements enables automatic transfer devices to properly grasp the envelopes without the need for sensors on the transfer mechanisms. Examples of production steps which are presently being automated and require accurate positioning and specific orientation are the second getter flash and the automatic packaging of finished kinescopes.
It has been found that a second getter flash of kinescopes improves the performance of the tubes and frequently eliminates such problems as blocked apertures. Additionally, automatic packaging of the finished kinescopes eliminates expensive manual handling and substantially reduces damaging finished tubes. However, the automatic performance of these operations necessitates the kinescopes to be accurately positioned at a preselected position and oriented in a preselected orientation. When these conditions are met, the getter flash equipment can be moved into the vicinity of the getter and the automatic transfer mechanism is able to engage tubes of various sizes without the need for sensing the presence and orientation of the kinescopes.
The invention is directed to such a mechanism.